Queer to the Corps by Sue Nugent

Author:Sue Nugent [Nugent, Sue]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sue Nugent
Published: 2014-07-20T22:00:00+00:00

27. Cold Weather Training

The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says: It’s a girl.

Shirley Chisholm

The “field” was designed to teach Marines war tactics in different environments, such as in extreme cold weather or in desert heat. Marines also go out into the field for training in jungle warfare and amphibious assault. For my squadron, it was basically doing our job while camping, but without the ease of the hangar to do repairs.

Being in the field was never fun, but was especially difficult when no travel was involved. One year, my squadron had cold weather training in Oak Grove, North Carolina. We trained in a small cleared area with a tarmac and a few nearby landing zones. Many of the pilots flew back to New River daily for showers and food while the enlisted worked in the cold and lived in tents. Our time in the field was a test of equipment and of what can be humanly tolerated. The command was supposed to monitor cohesion among the troops in stressful situations. To be an enlisted out in the field also meant beer rationing cards, bad food, and poor hygiene. Sometimes the meals were hot but others we ate were either the older C-rats or the new dehydrated MREs (meals ready to eat). The C-rats were from older inventory and rumored to be from the Vietnam War. The MREs were less appealing because adding water to everything dehydrated made for a constant texture of mush. The field kitchens weren’t much better in the morning when they cooked reconstituted eggs, fried reconstituted potatoes from the night before’s mashed potatoes, and fried a Spam-like meat shaped and colored to look like bacon.

Kerosene heaters that resembled beer kegs heated the tents. If they became too warm, their chimneys turned red-hot, ultimately causing the tent to catch fire. No matter how many times we were trained on the correct use of the heaters, someone always erred and at least one tent burned. Out in the field at Oak Grove, the exasperated command announced that if a tent burned, its occupants would sleep outside. When the officers’ tent went down in flames, the rule did not apply.

So many various commands sent women out to the field during this particular field training that our tent was not big enough. For the men’s amusement, the command instructed the women to erect a larger tent. Exercises like this were always framed as learning experiences, but none of us in my command had ever put up our own tent. A supply unit’s sole purpose was to set up the camp before we arrived. They were trained and expert as this task. The tents were large with wood beams, heavy canvas, and no instructions, so, as with any tent, they were difficult to construct the first time.

After the first male entered our tent in the dark of night, the command placed concertina wire (razor wire) around it, and an armed guard. Also to protect us from

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